Apple tree choice?
Lily Pilly
Posts: 3,845
Please can anyone recommend a good apple tree that will survive the pollution of a London garden. South west facing but hoping it will provide some shade in the fenced corner
criteria is blossom, then fruit, then autumn colour
It's for my daughters garden so will inevitably be bashed by toys, pidled on by dogs and rarely weeded!
Weeds are flowers, too, once you get to know them.”
A A Milne
A A Milne
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Tough ask, poor little tree. Anything will do. Forget autumn colour - that doesn't happen with apples. Fruit will be lovely, whatever the tree, fresh picked. I'd look for an eater like Fiesta Red Pippin, Katy, or another of the Cox derivatives - for the children to eat off the tree. Get a young tree, stake it well, don't let it fruit the first year,then just LOOK AFTER IT and it'll look after you.
H-C
Good advice Hortum,
Sadly I am not near enough to oversee but I shall nag!!!!!
A A Milne
HOW ABOUT DIRLETON RED? RED FLOWERS, RED FRUIT, RED FLESH INSIDE THE FRUIT,RED BUDS, RED LEAVES AND EVEN RED TIMBER.
I BOUGHT ONE LAST YEAR AND THIS SPRING IT IS GOING TO BE COVERED IN FLOWERS. ONLY THREE YEARS OLD.
HERE IS A DESCRIPTION OF IT FROM THE NURSERY WHICH SUPPLIED IT, BERNWODE NURSERY,
DIRLETON RED A stunning ornamental tree, as well as a very palatable apple for culinary use. It was introduced to us by Bill Anderson, a construction engineer for oil and process industries, who had long admired the mature tree over his neighbour’s fence and treated himself to the apples in salads and drinks. The tree is in Dirleton, a village in East Lothian, Scotland, where the Firth of Forth, from Edinburgh, opens into the North Sea. Open to the north east winds, the tree is clearly very hardy. It is one of those curious trees that has copper tinted young foliage, dark coloured bark, especially on young stems, and red staining inside the wood. The apples are deep red. Like Bundy’s Ringwood Red (above) it probably has some ancestry from Malus Niedzwetzkyana, an all-over red tinted crab, with which it has much in common, but the fruit is larger and without the astringent bitterness of the crab. The blossom is quite stunning. It flowers readily from almost all one year old buds, as well as mature spurs, with petals of the richest deep carmine pink. The apples are translucent deep red over deep pink, usually flattened round, but occasionally conical. The flesh is crisp and juicy, with a little sweetness but quite tart – it is also stained, from the skin to the core, with deep pink. Spur bearing. Thanks to Bill Anderson for sending apples and scionwood. *
BUT IF YOU ARE GOING TO GO TO THE EXPENSE OF BUYING A DECENT, INTERESTING TREE THEN THE LEAST YOU CAN DO IS TAKE CARE THAT IT SURVIVES,
Last edited: 23 March 2017 18:43:41
If you live in Derbyshire, as I do.
Thanks Pansy. I think it may be my "housewarming" ?
A A Milne
Today I saw something about an avocado pear that someone had fruited in London. The tree was 10m high so I guess it was not in a greenhouse. Pretty amazing microclimate.
The best apple we grow here in Surrey (so not far from London) is Lord Lambourne - great taste. We also have a Sunset, which is cox like, but easier to grow - prolific, if quite small apples
Do remember that apples need a pollinator nearby so check around for other apple trees or crab apples or consider a "family" tree which has more than one variety grafted on it. Remember also that the rootstock which will determine the vigour of the tree.
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
Thanks everyone, great advice. Will investigate them all.
A A Milne